Ruby Koyner

Budget cuts are already having a ripple effect on programs, as librarians from all four Laboratory School libraries on May 16 announced a “hiatus of the Zena Sutherland Awards program.”

Updated May 27: After meeting with librarians on May 24, Director of Schools Tori Jueds announced in an email to employees that the program would in fact remain in place for next school year. Read more in a larger story about budget cuts here: https://uhighmidway.com/25028/news/budget-cuts-disappoint-dishearten/

Budget cuts are already having a ripple effect on programs, as librarians from all four Laboratory School libraries on May 16 announced a “hiatus of the Zena Sutherland Awards program.” The Sutherland Award, which has run for 30 years, is a child-selected accolade for children’s literature. The candidates are chosen by a committee of sixth graders and voted on by fourth and fifth graders.   

The email sent to all Lab employees outlined the factors in the decision and explained that given the schoolwide 25% reduction in library staff, programming for the upcoming school year needed to be reconsidered to accommodate new challenges. 

“Rather than risk disappointing students as the unfamiliar terrain ahead reveals itself, we are making the tough decision now to halt this 30-year program,” the email read.

Middle school librarian Tad Andracki said the decision to halt the committee was not made lightly. The librarians determined that the committee would not be of the same quality for future participants, and thus, the work put in would not be worth it going forward, he said.

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“We hold the Sutherland Awards process to an incredibly high standard,” Mr. Andracki said. “If it’s going to happen at all, we want it to happen in the best possible way it can. We don’t know what next year’s going to look like for the libraries yet, but we do know resources are going to be stretched thin, and we know the likelihood of the Sutherland going as well as we expect it to is very low.”

Mr. Andracki said that even though it’s temporary, he feels the loss of the program on both a professional and personal level. 

“One of the reasons that I applied for and took this job was the Sutherland Awards,” Mr. Andracki said. “The ability to work with students, to think about books so deeply, is something truly incredible and not something you can find many other places. So, this decision was not made lightly, and in fact, it was one that hurt my own heart.”

Sophomore Hannah Bueno de Mesquita, who participated as a member of the Sutherland Committee as a Lab sixth grader, said she’s disappointed by the loss of this opportunity for middle and lower schoolers to connect over shared experiences and interests. 

“I think it’ll be a real loss,” Hannah said. “It was a really important experience in middle school for me, not only to connect with peers but also with lower schoolers, getting to share an experience that we all loved so much with them.”

The Lab website states that Zena Sutherland was a former University of Chicago faculty member and considered among the world’s most influential scholars of young people’s literature.